Agreed, Jacqueline. Teas and Chinas RESENT hard pruning. Evergreen roses need the stored carbs in the old wood to push new growth and remain as disease resistant as they should be. Those huge petals in the quantities they produce them in take a LOT of energy, and they keep it in reserve in that old, thick wood. Many years ago, one of the local rose societies pruned the old Teas such as Rosette Delizy and a number of others at The Homestead Acre in Chatsworth Park South. Candy and Dean Craig, who restored the garden as their retirement project, were in Colorado where they spent every summer. When they returned to find the old Teas pruned like exhibition HTs, she cried. It took YEARS for them to begin to recover. It was sickening. These roses perform as splendidly as they do because they don't get "pruned". Simply remove any badly damaged, diseased wood and any which are definitely not where you can deal with them. Leave the rest alone. If disease and insects such as rose slug are issues, strongly consider removing the foliage and cleaning as much of it as possible from the beds. Your garden waste barrels are the perfect disposal container for them. I don't ever use rose debris as mulch in rose beds/gardens (at least, not deliberately). If nothing else, it keeps me from encountering prickles, such as those nasty Chihuahua teeth ones on the leaf midribs, when I'm not expecting it and when I don't WANT to. If we're lucky, we get wind and strong enough rains to knock off the foliage which should be shed here on SoCal. Usually, we aren't that fortunate. Otherwise, if there are issues in the garden which need addressing, defoliating the plants makes it SO much easier and efficient, IF you can deal with the blood loss!

This has been the same discussion for over a decade on here. I have tried, rejected and retried items dozens of times. When you are surronded by hundreds of acres of woods (as most who live in rural maine are) spraying your little patch of yard isnt all that effective) I too for years did the soap can, but frankly after one weekend where my family and friends helped me pick over 10k JBs and I finally relized its impossible to really put a dent in them, Ive given up. There are members here that DO spray and they were pretty much forced away from the Forums at that time. Weve had some back and forth battles here, with sadly knowledge people have left becuase of it. There is nothing you can do except spray with heavily toxic substances every 2-3 days to keep a rose garden in bloom. I fail to see where putting cheesecloth down would help, you couldnt see anything under them! I choose not to spray (other then remove infastations early in the season (red asian beetles and rose slugs, pre flower forming invasive, and 1-2 applications is enough to knock them out) so I have forgone repeating roses. I think its the best choice all around. I still have a couple and every once in awhile will get a small fall rose flush. When I first started (more north from here and a decade and half ago) growing roses, the season wasnt as bad, you could basically pick the JBS off, but now, it is worse, I can tell, you cannot keep up on a rose garden without spraying, especially if you have roses in any numbers

Wanttogarden Bare root roses which include packaged ones are fresher this time of the year having been just recently harvested. If bought and planted in warmer growing zones, you should enjoy a good plant. Except, CR roses are noted for often being mislabeled and the larger #1 grade bushes are often sold to the better nurseries and good mail order suppliers. Those body bagged ones in stores in spring are often grade 1 1/2 or ungraded culls and have been stored for much of the winter. Rough handling when harvested can result in cankered canes that may not survive or only produce blind growth. That's why the big box stores and discounters like Michigan Bulb get them as they can sell them cheap. You get what you pay for.

Can't help with finding, but a warning - Honorine Jobert (tall white) has spread very aggressively in my yard, and is difficult to remove when it gets into rose bushes etc. I hand treated with Roundup and only got partial removal with it coming back completely in 2 years. The shorter pink forms seem to be better behaved... PPS if any one is interested in HJ they can come to Los Gatos and dig as much as they like...